Impact On Popular Culture
The gender-bending implications of the title have been adapted to explore issues of sex and gender, another use of the popular song title that goes beyond its original scope. The 2001 documentary A Boy Named Sue features a transgender protagonist and uses the song in the soundtrack. A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music is the title of a 2004 book about the role of the gender in American country music.
In the film Swingers, one of the male characters is named Sue. The name is explained by another character by saying, "his dad was a big Johnny Cash fan." True to the song, this character has a quick temper and gets into fights easily.
"A Boy Named Sue" is referenced in the Red Hot Chili Peppers songs "One Big Mob" and "Save This Lady."
In the Dexter's Laboratory A Boy Named Sue Mandark recalls through his infancy and early childhood when his Hippy parents named him Susan and how he discovered his manhood by science.
The Stone Temple Pilots' song 'Crackerman' references 'A Boy Named Sue' in the second verse.
Read more about this topic: A Boy Named Sue
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“The lowest form of popular culture—lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people’s lives—has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage.”
—Carl Bernstein (b. 1944)
“Too many existing classrooms for young children have this overriding goal: To get the children ready for first grade. This goal is unworthy. It is hurtful. This goal has had the most distorting impact on five-year-olds. It causes kindergartens to be merely the handmaidens of first grade.... Kindergarten teachers cannot look at their own children and plan for their present needs as five-year-olds.”
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